Weekend Digest: A Senator And War Hero Lies In State

For our weekend political readers:

THE POWER OF THE SHUTTER
President Obama has a “secret weapon” on his staff, according to the Washington Post.  His name is Pete Souza.

And, in an election in which Obama’s likability seemed to trump policy concerns that many voters held about him, it’s not an exaggeration to say that Souza was a major cog in the machine that got the incumbent re-elected.

Who is Pete Souza and what is his role that is so vital to Obama, and how has social networking added much to Souza’s work?  Find out by following this link.

THE TEA PARTY IS FOCUSING ON THE WRONG NUMBERS
That’s according to the libertarian-leaning American.com.

By focusing on the debt limit, Tea Partiers are wasting valuable time on the wrong issue.  What matters most is the size of our economy.  We should be focusing on economic growth, not the debt ceiling number.

The surest way to protect the status of our dollar and our sovereign debt is to grow our economy at least as fast as our debt grows.  Conversely, the surest way to become “Greece 2.0” would be to detonate our suicide vest–i.e., to default on our Treasury securities in the world–the “U.S. dollar”–and, ironically, that destruction would be self-inflicted.

For more analysis including charts on what The American contributor thinks is the best way to grow the economy, click on this link.  Here’s a sample:

Instead of political grandstanding around a redundant, made-up number, we should spend that valuable time debating how best to achieve robust growth given our current economic condition.

SENATOR DANIEL INOUYE DIES AT 88
Long-serving U.S. Senator and war hero Daniel Inouye from Hawaii dies from respiratory complications this past week.  Inouye was third in command to take over the White House and was the pro-tempore of the Senate.

With Inouye’s death, the Senate — and the nation — lose more than just a long-serving senator. His death signals the end of an era for his state, too. It’s tough to overstate the association between Inouye and his home state. Not only was his last word “Aloha,” he also represented Hawaii in Congress — first as a representative, from 1959 to 1963, and then as a senator — for the archipelago’s entire history as a state.

The Atlantic reports that Inouye witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  For the complete Atlantic story on Inouye’s life and his career in politics go to this link.

The Atlantic also offers two stunning photographs at this link of Inouye’s casket lying in state at the capitol rotunda, an extremely rare honor.